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My wedding dress - Part 2

Written by Elisabeth on March 22, 2009 – 15:15 -

On Monday my mother came visiting to see if we could salvage the wedding dress, or if I should go for Plan B: Make the dress into a skirt instead. We tried the dress on and my mother hmmmed, and she hammmed, and she made me turn around, then she tugged at the fabric here and there, hmmmed some more, fetched a belt, made me turn around and said that she could make this work ok if I wanted to, even if I claimed I felt a bit boxy and fat in the entire thing. I do think she wanted the dress to work because she, as my mother, have always envisioned me in a dress at my wedding day.

Then I showed her plan B with the fitted, stretchy top and the belt and she caved immediately realising I looked both better and more comfortable.

So today I have made the dress into a skirt, sown on a functional zipper that doesn’t look half bad and I have pinned on the butterflies.

The black butterflies on green have been the main concept of my entire wedding dress-now-skirt since we decided to wed last summer. The butterflies are made of felt and I custom ordered them from the very talented etsy seller kutz. I have a couple of other of her creations as well, and I simply cannot recommend her enough.

I’m quite happy to have gotten this far ahead on my wedding outfit. I’m been very stressed trying to get it all to come together, and ever since it hit me that I’m  actually going to Japan any minute now I needed to get my act together and just sew.

As for the vacation in it self I’m all made up of butterflies on the inside as well - This is my Dream Vacation coming true, and the wedding to boot!

Tags: butterflies, felt, sewing, skirt, wedding
Posted in Clothing, etsy favourites | No Comments »

My wedding dress - Part 1

Written by Elisabeth on March 12, 2009 – 23:25 -

I really, really wish I knew how to sew. Well - I do know how to operate my sewing machine (at the bare minimum), I can more or less follow a simple pattern and friends and family tend to be terribly impressed with what I present them; either just to look at and admire or to keep and admire.

But for some reason it never quite struck me that maybe they are so impressed because they really don’t have any faith in my sewing skills? Maybe I’m actually way to overconfident in this area?

The overconfidence thought has struck me now, and with such force.

I am getting married in just over a month. I am flying to Japan in exactly 18 days for a vacation / honeymoon / wedding. For that wedding I have planned for months and months to wear a bottle green 1950s dress with black butterflies appliqued to the fabric. I did have some initial doubts about making the dress myself, but when I discovered that a competent dress maker will charge somewhere between 600 and 1000 dollars my cheapness got the better of me and I decided that I would make the dress myself.

I have harboured all kinds of romantic notions about floating around in a pretty homemade dress, feeling like the top of the world and getting compliments from everyone. I started out the quest for this fantasy fulfillment by ordering a vintage 1950s pattern. I proceeded by (foolishly) thinking “how hard can it be to make a simple cotton dress” and bought fabric and thread and everything pretty.

After a while I started getting worried. I had totally neglected to take into account that I am quite busty so I would need some serious tailoring in that general area. I had also not put any thought towards the fact that I’m really bad at sewing holes for arms - something that a dress should have after all.

So.

18 days till I leave for Japan. What do I have? I have a half sown skirt, some sort of top, some scruffy looking arm holes attached to that top, brand new shoes, an underskirt ordered off eBay and a plan B to drop the dress, sew the skirt part into a, well, skirt, stick on the pretty butterflies - and then pair it off with a lovely top and a broad belt.

Plan A is still not completely lost though. I have called upon my mother to visit me next week to see if she can salvage the dress. If she can, she has to sew it all in one evening while I do things like stand stupidly around, cook dinner and act as a mannequin.

Wish me luck -

Tags: dress, sewing, wedding
Posted in Clothing | No Comments »

Behold the Perfect Messenger Bag

Written by Elisabeth on August 5, 2008 – 20:39 -

After I had made a good old mess of my first attempt at recreating the Perfect Floppy Messenger Bag I wasted little time in making a second attempt. I just spent a couple of days pondering what to change before I started cutting fabric again.

The list of things to improve were rather long and included figuring out to improve the general texture of the bag without making it too sturdy (hence “floppy”), how to make sure the inside pockets ended up the size I wanted them to, measure the placement of the straps and teach myself properly how to sew a zipper (this is surprisingly difficult by the way and I ended up watching lots of frustrating youtube videos).

I don’t think I have used interfacing since the 8^th grade and I spent a long time at the shop fondling the different types before I ended up with a thin iron on for my flap and a sturdy sew in for the body of the bag. These turned out to be good choices and gave my bag the perfect floppy feel once I was done with it.

This time I didn’t ruin any needles and my shoulderstrap was not wonky anymore. My boyfriend nobly donated his Green Lantern t-shirt, and together with some old canvas curtains of mine the perfect floppy messenger bag was born.

And since it was deemed a success and I had gotten the taste of advanced bag making and redesign I decided to open my own etsy shop with my messenger bags, my totes, my frame purses and any other item that I would fancy to get a go at. After all a girl only need so many bags and purses – and I figured someone else might enjoy the ones I make!

Tags: messenger bag, sewing
Posted in Bags and purses | 4 Comments »

It all started with a bag

Written by Elisabeth on August 4, 2008 – 20:44 -

Years and years ago I bought something that turned out to be the perfect messenger bag. It was nice and floppy and hence shaped itself nicely around my bum, it was easy to overstuff, it had a perfect strap , there was a zipper on top, it was cool and that bag ended being my number one choice for every vacation and every time I needed “a bit bigger bag”.

I loved it.

I loved it so much that I loved it to tatters, and after having kept the bag artificially alive for several months I decided I need a new one. So the quest for the perfect new messenger bag started. My original bag was no longer for sale – and I had anyway decided that I as a grown woman of soon to be 32 was a tiny bit too old for a Ruby Gloom decoration with studs on my bag.

In my search I bought several lovely bags. But they were not big enough. Or floppy enough. Or simply just good enough.

Then I bought a sewing machine and the madness started! I researched the internet so hard. I measured the old bag in every thinkable way. I bought some canvas. I bought a zipper. I drew and cut and sewed pieces together with an annoying sort of frenzy. In my head I knew exactly what my new wonderful bag would look like. It would have the lovely glow of handmade accomplishment and perfection. The mental image of my new sea green messenger bag brought tears to my eyes and kept me at the sewing even when the needle broke on the zipper and the thread got stuck somewhere in the shadowy depths of my sewing machine. I was a girl with a mission.

The finished bag did bring tears to my eyes. But not from perfection. Oh no. The bag was limp not floppy. I had missed a seam somewhere along the way. I had not managed to sew the zipper on correctly and my idea of where to put the fastenings of the strap turned out to be way off mark and just enhanced that limp, sad look. I tried to cheer it up with some happy buttons with kitties on them and hung it on the rack with my other bags. 

It was not a sight for the weak-hearted. My perfect messenger bag had not turned out so good at all. Actually it had turned out quite bad. My dreams of being a Sewing Goddess had suffered a major blow. But then again. Considering that I still was in need for that Perfect Messenger Bag I dived in to my local supplier for all things fabric related and spent hard earned cash on interfacing, trim, a new zipper and fabric glue. Then I went home to for another go at bag making.

Tags: bag, craft, sewing
Posted in Bags and purses | No Comments »